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Microsoft licenses out exFAT file system
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| In February 2009, news broke that Microsoft had
| filed a patent infringement lawsuit against
| TomTom, alleging that the device maker's
| products, including some that are Linux-based,
| infringe on patents related to Microsoft's
| FAT32 filesystem. In March 2009, Microsoft and
| TomTom settled their controversial patent
| dispute, TomTom licensed the patents from
| Microsoft, and stated its intent to remove from
| its Linux kernel the code that is covered by
| the patents.
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http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2009/12/microsoft-licenses-out-exfat-file-system.ars
Racketeering operations here too:
Rambus soothes EC ire with lower prices
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| The American memory chip designer has been
| fighting allegations that it intentionally
| concealed that it had patents and patent
| applications connected to DRAM chips, which
| later became an industry standard. It's
| accused of charging abusive licensing rates
| for the technology once its "patent ambush"
| was sprung.
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http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/12/11/ec_drops_rambus_charges/
Recent:
Intellectual Ventures' patent protection racket
http://slashdot.org/submission/1068513/Intellectual-Ventures-patent-protection-racket
Nathan Myhrvoldâs Evil Genius
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| Until recently, one of the few points Myhrvold could make in his own favor is
| that he hadnât started suing firms that declined to license his patent
| portfolio. I say âuntil recentlyâ because weâre now learning that the lawsuits
| have started. IV has begun selling off chunks of its patent portfolio to
| people like Raymond Niro with well-deserved reputations for being âpatent
| trolls.â Threatening to sell patents to a third party who will sue you is more
| subtle than threatening to sue you directly, but the threat is just as potent.
| Myhrvoldâs âsales pitchâ to prospective licensees just got a lot more
| convincing.
|
| The fundamental question we should be asking about this business strategy is
| how it benefits anyone other than Myhrvold and the patent bar. Remember that
| the standard policy argument for patents is that they incentivize beneficial
| research and development. Yet IVâs business model is based on the opposite
| premise: produce no innovative products, spend minimal amounts on research and
| development, and make a profit by compelling firms that are producing products
| and investing in R&D to pay up. Not only does this enrich Myhrvold at everyone
| elseâs expense, but it also reduces the incentive to innovate, because anyone
| who produces an innovative product is forced to share his profits with
| Intellectual Ventures. Patents are supposed to make innovation more
| profitable. Myhrvold is using the patent system in a way that does just the
| opposite. In thinking about how to reform the patent system, a good yardstick
| would be to look for policy changes that would tend to put Myhrvold and his
| firm out of business.
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http://timothyblee.com/?p=781
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